Evangelistic OSS Products - An Introduction

As anyone who has read the book Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore (or even heard about the concepts) knows, there is a point at the early evolution of a new product that is in a new space when the company has to do an "evangelistic sell." No one knows that they need that product (i.e. there is not an established market with a set of vendors providing somewhat the same thing to a defined set of customers). But a few brave customers (usually ones who love technology, in the case of OSSs and BSSs) are willing to take the gamble - these Moore called the 'innovators.' Then there is a gap (or 'chasm') as the 'early adopter' customers, usually looking for competitive advantage, begin to implement the product and see if it lives up to its potential.

Many products fall into that chasm, never to be seen again - but those who cross the chasm usually begin to experience that heady 'hockey-stick' sales curve that companies crave.

In a series of BLOGS this year, I'm going to take on the task of describing some of whom I see as the companies and products in the BSS/OSS space who are crossing the chasm, or aspiring to.

I'll be covering companies like:

• Aria, attempting to change the way CSPs plan networks
• Celona, with new techniques for data migration
• Intelliden, tackling configuration management of CSP equipment
• Tribold, with a master catalog that seeks to dramatically decrease the time for new services to be introduced in BSSs
• Ontology, looking to bring the benefits of new bottoms-up patterning technology from biology to telecom to make database interfaces easier
• RateIntegration, bringing real-time marketing information to CSPs

Others have been suggested, such as Irdeto, GreenPlum, OSSTree, RiverMuse, and Quantellia, which I'll take a look at.

Comments and suggestions welcomed.